Five
by Dark Lord Gogen
Summary: There must be five,” The raspy voice boomed. "How can you give this child this kind of power? He doesn't know how to weild it!" Caleb screamed back. An unseen force knocked Caleb flat on his back and immobile. "Do not defy me, Danvers!"
1. Chapter 1

Pogue stepped through the front door of the hospital, it slid open automatically and a fan blowing up from the floor helped to make the transition to a different air pressure a little more comfortable. His leather jacket was pulled high on his neck, a cold Massachusetts fall evening notwithstanding the suns rays beating on the hospital building. Reid sat in a car, parked in the pick-up circle. A fresh cold breeze blew against the tender bruise on his cheekbone, and he silently thanked Reid for bringing the car instead of his bike. The open wind against that bruise would feel like torture. He opened the car door slowly, and eased himself into the passenger seat. He couldn't believe his muscles were still this sore nearly a month after that power hungry bastard, Chase, had slammed him off of his motorcycle and thrown him – no dragged him—nearly 300 feet at almost 80 miles per hour.

"They were magically induced, you have to expect them to hang around for a little while longer than a simple black eye." Reid said as if reading his mind. That upturned lip and mischievous look permanently molded to his pasty white face. Reid pushed a lock of blond hair out of his eyes and shifted the car into drive and pulling out into traffic. Pogue rested his forehead against the cool glass and began to contemplate his eighteenth birthday, and his ascension, for about the millionth time since it had occurred a week ago. When he had ascended his power had tripled, but he felt like he had aged 15 years over night. It wasn't the incredible increase in power or his simultaneous instant aging; it was the raspy voice that had whispered. _There must be five. _The only conclusion that he could come to was the fifth son. Caleb had killed the fifth son, Chase, in self-defense just after Pogue's accident. Caleb had been the first to ascend, followed by Pogue, Reid wasn't far behind with his eighteenth birthday in just another week or so, and Tyler's birthday was in November.

They pulled up to an old farmhouse located at the outskirts of town. Tyler and Caleb were leaning on a fence, staring off into the distance, the last of the leaves from a giant oak tree settled on the ground next to them.

"Good to see you up and moving around again," Caleb said, extending his hand for Pogue and pulling him into a hug, patting him gently on the back. The four boys leaned against the fence staring at the colonial farmhouse beyond it. Reid had been right, Pogue determined. His accident had brought the four of them closer together, he could feel that, but there was a strange emptiness that he had never felt before and judging by the posture of the other three, they were feeling it too. This was the first time since the accident that all four of them had been together. A wind whispered through the branches of the tree next to them, and it whispered over and over again: _There must be five_. Pogue shook his head, trying to dismiss it and push it to the back of his mind but it just kept replaying itself over and over again.

"Pogue?" Tyler said, tossing his curls back behind his shoulders.

"What? Sorry, I spaced there for a minute." He replied taking just a few steps toward the oak tree. The branches reached down for him like bony fingers.

"I asked you how you were healing up? Tyler repeated

"Still sore, a few scratches that just won't seem to heal." He ran his fingers across the rough bark. He could feel the age of the tree

"Well, you took quite the beating, it surprised us all that you were still alive." Caleb said

"You fought Chase, and he had his Dad's power and he was ascended. I went after him on a motorcycle." For a moment, Pogue faltered when he thought about the reason he had been so stupidly reckless. His girl, Kate, had been under a spider creation spell, cast by that bastard Pope.

"It doesn't matter now, Chase is dead, and the fifth son of Ipswich is no more. I've done a lot of research since you were hospitalized and there isn't another Pope family that fits." Caleb said

"Something doesn't feel right." Tyler said, cutting off Pogue's response and looking into the sky. A storm was brewing and it looked to be a strong cup of tea.

"Well, you know what they say." Reid said that smirk once again crossing his face. He spread his hands, "_There must be five_."

* * *

Far outside a little town north of Salem, lightning streaked the sky over a small farm. Seventeen-year-old Jeremiah stood outside on a covered deck preceding a large farmhouse. Jeremiah's shoulder length black hair fluttered in the wind and a roll of thunder shook the house. Something had been pulling him outside all night so after noticing the thunderstorm, he had pushed aside the screen door, checked the mailbox with POPE scrawled across it, and taken post on the deck. An unseen force drew him out into the rain where he was immediately drenched. His brown eyes turned to the sky. Thunder rolled menacingly and the rain picked up slightly. A bolt of lightning slammed through his body and into the ground. Screams of pain filled his ears and by the time he had figured out that the screams were his own, darkness had already claimed him.

Jeremiah stood in the center of a swirl of mist.

_There must be five_

"Who's there?!" Jeremiah said.

_There must be five!_

"Who's there?" Jeremiah whimpered

_In the blink of your eyes_

_there is only blackness_

_in blackness there is power_

_but in power there is blackness_

_it will draw you in and eat your soul_

_use the power wisely and you will find the covenant_.

"What's the covenant?" Jeremiah said, the swirling mist began to dissipate and before long, he was standing in the darkness alone.

* * *

The four Sons of Ipswich watched a lightning bolt slam out of the clouds in the distance. The wind had started blowing violently almost as soon as Reid had finished the last word of his sentence. Droplets of rain splattered the windshields of the cars behind them. Caleb's mustang whined loudly as it raised the ragtop out from behind the back seat.

"What did you say?" Caleb said, taking a step toward Reid. Reid's permanent smirk became more pronounced.

"You can't tell me you haven't heard that every day since you killed Chase," Reid said "I know that I have."

"Me too," Tyler cut in "I was afraid I was going nuts!"

"Yeah, me too…" Pogue trailed off, taking comfort in the fact that he wasn't the only one hearing the voice but also unsettled in the fact that the feeling of emptiness, the nagging thought in the back of his mind that they had forgotten something or lost something, had just disappeared. The other three wore expressions that said that they had just remembered where they had stored the spare keys to their cars.

"We should go downstairs, get out of the rain and we can consult the book." Caleb said.

Downstairs was an empty cavern, looked as though it was completely naturally formed, but Pogue knew better. He could feel the magic coursing through the walls. Five stools made completely from rock perched around an altar and several bookcases lined the cave-like walls. A few lit torches illuminated the otherwise dark chamber. Pogue took his seat but squirmed uneasily. The last time he had been in this room was only moments before Chase had—

A large leather book streaked by his head, disrupting his thoughts as the other three took their seats. Caleb sighed as the book flipped open in front of his face. Down here was the only place that the sons could use without having to worry about it eating away their life force. Enough power had gone into forging this lair to allow them to use freely down here.

The book slammed down onto the altar, making Pogue jump and again, wrenching him away from his thoughts. He was going to have to stop thinking so much, being wrenched away every time he had a thought was getting annoying. Fire shot up around the book with a cloud of heat.

"The book says that there must be five. If any one of the direct descendants of the original Sons of Ipswitch passes on without willing away his power or producing an heir, the power is then transferred to the next best candidate." Caleb said "The next best candidate is the closest living relative under the age of eighteen, it could be a brother, cousin, anything. 'If he be under the age of ascension, he is bound by the Magick of Ipswitch when there is no other.'" Caleb recited.

"So we have to find out who the next closest relative to Chase is? That ought to be a chore." Tyler said

"Nope," Reid smiled. "We just have to find the person who is using. He just got the power, so he's going to be freaking out when he uses for the first couple of times."

Ominous thunder rumbled outside, and the flames around the book went out.


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN: Thanks to all who reviewed, chapters will start coming quicker as I have my own computer now :-D_**

* * *

Jeremiah woke slowly. His head was throbbing and every muscle in his body seemed to be responding incredibly slowly. He sat up in bed, and held his head in his hands.

"You gave us quite a scare, Mr. Pope!" A deep male voice said enthusiastically. Jeremiah opened his eyes. A tall man with salt and pepper colored hair and a three-piece suit was zipping a medical bag. Jeremiah barely recognized him as Dr. Hamilton, the only physician in the world who still made house calls outside of normal business hours. He had been looking after the Pope family for years. He couldn't remember how many times he had heard the story about how Dr. Hamilton had helped his uncle and aunt deliver their first baby. They had both passed away very shortly after that.

"What happened?" Jeremiah asked groggily, rubbing his temples.

"We were hoping you knew," Dr. Hamilton said, handing Jeremiah a t-shirt. "Your parents found you laying on the ground outside. Your father called me and said you were jittering around like you had been struck by lightning." Dr. Hamilton cleaned his glasses slowly on his shirt. "So I told him not to move you, and when I had arrived and was sure you didn't have a concussion or any brain damage, I moved you in here." Jeremiah gasped as the memories came flooding back to him. He remembered being drawn out into the rain, and the swirling mist. That mist had told him to find the covenant. It was probably just a dream. But that's an awful funny coincidence, how do you have a dream like that right after getting struck by lightning?

"Jeremy?" Dr. Hamilton's voice sliced through his thoughts.

"What, I'm sorry, come again?" Jeremiah said, bringing himself back to reality.

"I had simply asked if you were feeling alright, I have another patient in Salem in about half an hour."

"Oh yeah, you can go, I'll be fine," Jeremiah said, rubbing his temples in an attempt to thwart the headache that was surging into his skull. The door to Jeremiah's bedroom swung open all by itself, slamming hard against the jamb. Dr. Hamilton grabbed his bag, puzzling at the door for a moment then advising Jeremiah to take it easy today. He nodded, his attempt to head off his headache proved futile as it attacked his forehead like an elephant with a jackhammer in a china shop. Dr. Hamilton left the room and the door, again acting as though possessed, slammed shut behind him. Jeremiah lay back in bed, moaning in pain. Before long, the headache became too much and sleep took him.

­

* * *

Sarah sat in the passenger seat as Caleb downshifted his mustang to negotiate a corner. They were on a back road, traveling toward Salem, and for once, the weather was beautiful. Sarah giggled animatedly as a couple of blossoms fell from a passing apple tree and landed in her lap. She stuck one in her hair, the other in Calebs shirt pocket. Leaning over, she brushed her lips against his cheek, happy just to be spending time with him. She was probably the only one outside of the four boys and their families, other than Pogue's girlfriend, Kate, who knew about the power. Although she had been unconscious, she had been present for Caleb's ascension and the fight against Chase. In fact, Chase had used her as bait to lure Caleb to the barn. He loved Sarah because she respected his power, and his wealth and she understood what using could do to him and how addicting it was. Caleb had told Sarah everything about the previous night and she had insisted on coming with him to hunt for the fifth.

The four had split up, figuring they would cover more ground, although they had all headed toward Salem, where they had determined that the lightning had struck just before they had gone into the cave. A hollow feeling struck Caleb in the pit of his stomach as he felt someone use, it wasn't much, and he doubted Tyler or Reid could feel it as they weren't ascended yet. His cell phone rang just as the feeling passed. He picked it up and flipped it opened.

"Hello?"

"Caleb?" It was Pogue, he sounded a little frantic.

"Yeah, what's up, Pogue?" Caleb said, hugging the phone between his ear and shoulder so he could shift.

"Did you feel that?" Pogue said, "Someone just used!" Pogue was riding with Kate who was driving her Toyota. Pogue was still having a hard time getting behind the wheel.

"Call Reid, ask him if it was him. It didn't feel like him, but call and ask just the same. I'll call Tyler. Call me back when you're done talking with Reid." Caleb closed his phone and opened it again. He called up Tyler's phone number and pushed the dial button.

"What's up Caleb?" Tyler answered. The hollow feeling returned, but it only lasted another second and it was gone.

"How's the drive? Have you had to use at all?" Caleb asked. Sarah looked at him with a grin and strained her ears to hear Tyler's answer.

"Good, it's a great day for a drive. But no, I haven't used all day, why?" Tyler replied.

"Don't worry about why. Call me if you find anything." Caleb said, closing his phone. He shifted up, blazing by a small farmhouse set just off the road. A man carrying a medical bag was opening the door on a small black car. Caleb's phone rang again.

"Pogue?" He said, putting the handset to his ear.

"Yeah, Reid says that he didn't use at all, but there is some asshole that just pulled out in front of him and he's ready to blow all four of his tires." Pogue chuckled uneasily.

The rest of the morning and into late afternoon was mostly uneventful, marked only by the clock and the gradual diminishing of the fuel in everyone's gas tanks. It was just after two thirty when the six of them had decided to stop at a local diner for a late lunch. The girls sat giggling at the table nibbling at their food while the boys sat staring at theirs. An uneasy feeling had settled upon the sons. Pogue wasn't sure if anyone had actually realized the gravity of the situation until just now. There was a newly appointed son who is definitely under 18, more than likely scared out of his mind, and not in any position to begin to understand the powers. End result: They were either looking for a crazed maniacal kid who has just found out he has amazing powers or a scared lonely kid who's world is crumbling around him because he can't control said powers. Either way, they might be looking at a fight. Pogue sighed loudly and popped a piece of steak in his mouth.

"Did you hear about the Pope boy?" One of the ladies behind the serving island whispered to the other.

"The one who delivers newspapers?" Pogue struggled to eavesdrop as soon as the word "pope" caught his ear. The conversation came through in broken bits. Pogue's eyes flashed with fire and then turned black as night and the conversation came to his ears as though he was sitting right next to them.

"Yes, the one who lives outside of town, he comes in here to ask for a glass of water every now and again while he is delivering papers." The woman with gray hair said. She fussed for a second with her apron.

"Yeah, what about him?" The dark haired woman replied, her accent was thick, straight from Boston.

"Doctor Hamilton said that he got struck by lightning last night. He's okay, but it threw him for a loop." Gray said. "I think it was his dad who delivered the papers this morning."

"Wow, he didn't go to the hospital or anything did he?" Dark said, the wiped her clean hands on a towel.

"No, Marcus said that he was going to be laid up in bed at least today, maybe tomorrow. I was going to drop off some clam chowder to him after I get off, did you want to send him something too?" Gray said, snapping a cap onto a plastic container. She turned it upside down just once to see if it was airtight and set it back on the counter. Dark twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

Pogue looked up to cut a piece of meat off his steak, which was cooked to perfection, and noticed Caleb and the other three glaring at him. They had noticed him using, the magic was undetectable accept to those who knew to look for it. The two girls stopped chattering for a moment and watched Pogue intently, both Kate and Sarah knowing the secret of his black eyes. Gray dropped the container into a plastic bag and looked at her co-worker.

"No," she replied "I'll stop by later, I'll pick him up a card or something…" she trailed off.

"Follow her." Pogue said quietly, gesturing toward the Gray haired lady. His eyes changed back to their normal pale blue and he watched Gray grab her plastic bag and head out the door, shouting a heart felt goodbye to the cook. Caleb stood and left the restaurant, heading for his car.

"Check please!" Pogue exclaimed, looking towards Dark. She smiled and walked the thin sheet of paper over to the table.


	3. Chapter 3

Pogue and Kate pulled up behind Caleb's parked car. Caleb had found a little out of the way spot that couldn't be seen from the house. A nook of ever greens blocked the road from view. Pogue exited the Toyota, swinging the door shut behind him and meandering over to Caleb who was leaning against a tree.

"So Caleb, how are we going to do this?" Pogue said, leaning back against the tree also, waiting to hear word that the other two vehicles were at post up the street. "I mean, we can't really just walk in there and say 'My name is Pogue, and this is Caleb, we'd like to talk to your son, he may have just obtained some very crazy powers and we want to teach him how to use them.'" Pogue finished. Caleb's phone jingled softly and he picked it up, said "Okay" and then looked at Pogue.

"Why not?" He smirked and headed toward the house.

* * *

Jeremiah had woken a few hours earlier with a foggy head but a sense of confidence that would rival Tiger Woods at a 100-yard putt. He had walked into an empty kitchen, where he had found a note from his parents scrawled in his mother's handwriting. Apparently they had gone grocery shopping and would be home soon and if he was feeling okay, he could watch some TV and snack on some cheese and crackers in the fridge. Just a little over two hours later, he was sitting in front of the TV, watching Ghost Hunters and sipping on a cream soda. The doorbell rang loudly, startling Jeremiah from his TV induced trance. He rose from his spot on the couch and made his way to the front door. The sun glinted off of what looked like the hood of a car from behind the belt of evergreens just up the street from his house, but when he stopped at the picture window to examine it, he couldn't find anything, and disregarded it. He swung open the front door.

"Hello, Jeremiah!" The elderly lady from the diner he stopped at while he was delivering newspapers in Salem stood in the doorway, donning her uniform and a plastic bag that hung from her wrist. Her gray hair was pulled in a tight bun on the back of her head, a toothy smile plastered on her face. "I heard about your accident from the doctor, and I wanted to drop this by for you." She said, extending the arm with the plastic bag, he pulled it off her wrist, carefully and looked inside. The bag contained only a plastic bowl, sealed with an airtight lid. The container was filled with a thick white liquid. "Clam Chowder. My husband made it from a batch of clams that he dug up just the other day." She said, almost reading his thoughts. He took the container out and dropped the bag to the floor.

"Thanks!" He said animatedly. The container still felt warm in his hand. He thanked her one more time; assured her several more times that he didn't need anything more and bid her adieu.

Clam chowder dripped from his chin to the front of his shirt, leaving a splotch of oil on his shirt beneath the glob of chowder. The thick soup wiped away easily, but the oil stain remained, taunting him as he finished his meal. Even as he spooned the last bit of the chowder into his mouth, he rinsed out the bowl and made his way to the bathroom to try and scrub the stain out of his shirt.

Pogue nearly flattened Caleb when he stopped in his tracks. The waitress they had followed crossed their path, seemingly in a hurry. She would have run them both over if Caleb had taken only two or three more steps. No sooner had she passed than they continued the short trek to the front of the beautiful house with a wooden deck that wrapped around three of the four sides of the house; _Pope_ was scrawled in calligraphy across the front of a mailbox hanging next to the mahogany front door with a large brass knocker. Pogue reached for the knocker and then heard a noise coming from the right side of the first floor. Caleb crept around to the side of the house, walking carefully on the deck.

"Damnit!" A young male voice said. Caleb peaked in the room, a bathroom, to find a shirtless young man with dark hair, standing just under six feet tall, frantically scrubbing at a stain on a nice looking T-Shirt. "Damnit all!!" He shouted. His posture changed and Caleb felt that hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach again. The fixtures on the sink suddenly exploded, spraying water everywhere. "What the hell?!" The kid said, frantically reaching for the water valve and turning it off. Examining the spot where the fixtures had originally been, Caleb decided that the entire sink would need to be replaced. The dark haired young man shook his head, puzzling over the anomaly, and then left the bathroom, probably to find another one. Caleb's eyes flashed black, and the fixtures flew back to the sink and the ceramic melded itself back together. Caleb put his fingers to his lips and motioned for Pogue to move around to the other side of the house, a command to which he quickly complied.

The pair of sons quickly moved to the other side of the house, careful not to let the deck creak. The boy was now spraying the contents of a bottle of Spray and Wash on the stain and scrubbing it like a crazed maid with a brush. He threw the shirt in the washer and pushed the button to start it. The washer simply made a dinging noise, but no water rushed into the chamber and the agitator did not start. The young man pushed the button frantically over and over again and the washer repeated its misbehavior, dinging after each frenzied push. Caleb's stomach sank again and the washer suddenly slammed through the wall behind it, spraying plaster and detergent everywhere and nearly toppling through the railing and off the deck.

"Damnit all to hell!" He roared as he stepped through the hole in the wall and onto the deck just as Caleb and Pogue snuck back around the corner of the house and out of sight. He grabbed hold of the washer and attempted to drag it back through the hole in the wall but to no avail. It scraped along the deck a couple of inches, but no further before he gave up. "WHATEVER!" He bellowed and stormed off the back of the deck and into the field behind the house. Caleb's eyes flashed again and the washing machine slid silently back through the hole in the wall and the wall filled itself in with the bits and pieces that had been scattered over the deck. Pogue lead off, heading toward where the kid was, off the back of the porch. Caleb and Pogue heard him mutter something and the sky darkened, thunder rolled and lightning streaked the sky. Pogue's eyes flashed black again, and the storm subsided ever so slightly, the black clouds evaporating into the sky.

"The weatherman said it was going to be nice today." Caleb said aloud, strolling casually into the back yard. He walked up to the kid who quickly turned around. Caleb extended his hand. "Caleb Danvers, and this is my friend, Pogue Parry." The kid took their hands reluctantly, but shook them forcefully.

"Jeremiah Pope," He said, looking to each of their eyes. Caleb and Pogue saw his eyes flash rapidly back and forth from black to their original colors; he really was having a hard time controlling this.

"Before we go any further, I want you to do me a favor." Caleb said. "Close your eyes for me and take a couple of deep breaths, now calm yourself down, this will be much easier to take in if you are relaxed." Jeremiah looked at him as though he were crazy, but then took his advice, closing his eyes and taking a few slow, deep and deliberate breaths. He opened his eyes again and sighed; Caleb was convinced when his eye color didn't change at all, but remained the same vivid green. "Okay, now that you have relaxed a little bit, what did your aunt and uncle name their son when he was born?" Caleb said, Pogue looked at him, slightly puzzled, and then realized that Caleb had done more research on this than he had anticipated.

"Well, his name was Chase, why?" Jeremiah replied without a second thought, he had heard the story so many times.

"You, Jeremiah, are the indirect lineage of Goody Pope, a woman that was tried as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials, I'm sure you've heard of her." Jeremiah nodded. "Before she and Mr. Pope died, they, and several other victims, created a covenant, a pact, that the first born son of their direct bloodlines would be endowed with special… powers. It is very difficult to explain without the book," Caleb said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. "If you would just come with us, I can explain to you why the sink blew up in your face, and how you pushed the washing machine through the wall." Caleb said. Jeremiah's jaw dropped.

"You saw that? I thought that I was seeing things, that lightning strike really did some things to my head." Jeremiah said with a chuckle, he scratched the back of his head nervously and Caleb and Pogue simply looked at each other.

"It did a lot more than just mess up your head," Pogue said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Just come with us and before you leave us, you'll be able to do anything you want." He finished.

"Alright, hold on, I have to write a note for my parents." Jeremiah said, stepping toward the house. Caleb stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"No time," Caleb's eyes flashed fire and then to black and then back to the original pale blue. "We're all set, there's a note on the back of theirs in the kitchen. It's in your handwriting. The washing machine is back in place, and the sink is fixed." Jeremiah looked at him, sniggered and shook his head. Strolling back into the house, he came out just moments later with a look of awe on his face and a fresh shirt on his back.

"There really was a note, and it really was in my handwriting. And you can't even tell there was a hole in the wall! How did you do that?" Jeremiah said, nearly tripping over every word. The three men hastened toward the cars, Pogue chuckled.

"I told you, anything you want." He said, opening the back door on the Toyota. Kate smiled at Jeremiah as he stooped to get in the back seat. Pogue took his place in the front and the caravan took off.

Caleb picked up his cell and dialed Reid's number. Reid picked up after two rings.

"What do you want?" Reid said with a chuckle.

"We got him, head back to the lair." Caleb said.

"Really? I thought it would be harder than that." He said, taking a deep breath, "Did he recycle Chase's powers, or is it a new set?"

"I'm not sure yet, but lets hope it's a new set, Chase's power would be way too much to handle for someone who didn't grow up with them." Caleb said. He snapped his phone shut and slammed his mustang into fifth gear, kicking a few stones into the air behind him.


End file.
